Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print setting control program and a print setting control method, and especially to a print setting control program such as a printer driver for performing processing to prohibition and a print setting control method which can make a setting change to solve the prohibition be easily recognized.
Description of the Related Art
In a case where an instruction to print is issued to a print device such as a printer and a multi-functional peripherals (MFP), after a document has been created by using an application installed to a computer device, data of the document is converted into print data with a page description language (PDL) format by using software (printer driver) to control the print device and is transmitted to the print device. After analyzing the print data and generating intermediate data, the print device forms an image in a bitmap format, and the print device transfers the image to paper and outputs it.
The recent print device includes various functions such as a function which is applied at the time of forming the image (for example, function for summarizing a plurality of pages into a single page) and a function which is applied after the image has been formed (for example, finisher function such as punching and stapling). Some functions are related to each other, and a combination (prohibition) which cannot be set by using related functions exists. When the settings conflict with each other, a current printer driver automatically releases the previous setting.
Regarding a technique for solving the conflict between the settings, for example, JP 2009-211713 A discloses a user interface control device including a conflict solving unit which solves a conflict by setting a second setting value already held by a printer driver to a value which does not cause the conflict with a first setting value when the first setting value has been input via a user interface of the printer driver for generating print data to be transmitted to the print device, a control unit which cannot set a control which is an instruction unit of the user interface of the printer driver according to the second setting value in a state where the conflict is solved by the conflict solving unit, and an informing unit which informs the reason why the control cannot be set by the control unit of the user by displaying it on the user interface of the printer driver.
However, when the previous setting is automatically changed to solve the conflict between the settings, a user cannot recognize the released setting and where the setting is released. Regarding this problem, in JP 2009-211713 A, the mark indicating the reason why the control cannot be set and that the control cannot be set is displayed near the previous setting (second setting value). However, with this method, the following setting (first setting value) which has caused the conflict between the settings and the place of the following setting cannot be intuitively recognized. Therefore, when the following setting is stopped and the previous setting is returned to the original setting, it takes time to perform a setting operation.
Further, in JP 2009-211713 A, a case is assumed where the previous setting and the following setting are in a single screen. Therefore, for example, when the previous setting and the following setting are in different screens from each other, the user who performs the following setting which has caused the conflict between the settings cannot recognize the mark and the reason displayed near the previous setting in the different screen. Therefore, it is possible that a print instruction is issued without noticing the change of the previous setting, and there is a problem in that a desired output cannot be obtained.